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West Bengal About West Bengal Places to Visit   Kolkata   About the City Getting there Getting around What to see Hotels Eating Out Bookshelf Shopping Festivals Weather and Essentials     About Kolkata One of India's largest metros, Kolkata - till recently Calcutta - is over 300 years old. In the 16th century, Kolkata was just a village when Job Charnok, an agent of the East India Company converted it into a British trade settlement. The rise of Calcutta began when it became the capital of British India in 1772. Though the city lost some of its sheen when the British shifted base to Delhi, making it the capital in 1912, it is still a thriving city that keeps reinventing itself. Kolkata and its people are passionate about art, literature, music, dance, theatre, and sports. Kolkata has produced international stalwarts in every field-Nobel Laureates Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa, and Amartya Sen, Oscar-winning film-maker Satyajit Ray and sportspersons of international repute including India's current cricket captain Saurav Ganguly. Love it or hate it, you just can't ignore the city of joy.